Hospitality eBusiness Strategies Wins Five Prominent Interactive Media Awards including Best in Class

Luxe Worldwide Hotels’ New Brand Website Honored as “Best in Class” in Travel and Tourism 2008

New York, NY | Hospitality eBusiness Strategies (HeBS), the hospitality industry's leading full-service Internet marketing services and strategies firm, today announced receipt of five prominent Interactive Media Awards (IMA). Presented by the Interactive Media Council (IMC), these awards recognize the highest standards of excellence in website design and development and honor individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievement.

HeBS was granted the prestigious "Best in Class" website award for the new brand website of Luxe Worldwide Hotels (www.LuxeHotels.com ), as well as four "Outstanding Achievement" awards for groundbreaking website design, content and usability. All of the judges for the IMAs are distinguished professionals and members of the IMC, a profit organization dedicated to elevating the standards of excellence on the Internet. Judges evaluate websites based on five criteria: Design, Content, Feature Functionality, Usability and Standards Compliance. To win an IMA a site must excel in each criterion and rise above competitors' sites.

Here are the award-winning websites, conceptualized, designed and built by HeBS:

The Best in Class award is the highest honor bestowed by the Interactive Media Awards, and HeBS is the only winner in the Travel/Tourism category. This award represents the very best in planning, execution and overall professionalism. In order to win this award level, a website has to successfully pass through IMA's comprehensive judging process, achieving very high marks in each of our judging criteria including design, content, feature functionality and usability. Winning the Best in Class award is an achievement only a fraction of sites in the IMA competition earn each year.

Max Starkov, President and CEO of Hospitality eBusiness Strategies, is pleased to receive these prestigious awards, noting that "Any hotel company's overall competitiveness today is determined to a great extent by how well it manages its Internet marketing and distribution efforts. A successful Internet marketing strategy begins and ends with a hotel website that follows industry best practices. The hotel website has become the first, main, quite often the only, and unfortunately in some cases the last point of contact with the online customer. Therefore building a hotel website that is user-friendly, search engine-friendly, booker-friendly and Web 2.0/customer interactivity friendly is a must for any hotel company. Especially in this economy, smart hoteliers must rethink their marketing strategies and satisfy the basics – and this includes an ROI-centric website that serves as a 24/7 sales and marketing tool."

"We are very excited about the new brand website, and are already seeing a significant increase in online leads and conversions since launch. The new site truly fits with the Luxe Hotels Worldwide brand and its distinctive collection of member hotels. The best hotel experience begins with the planning process, and we wanted to make sure we meet our customer's needs with a user-friendly website that reflects the Luxe travel experience" said Eve LeGrand Tronson, Vice President of Luxe Hotels.

About HeBS

Hospitality eBusiness Strategies (HeBS), the industry's leading Internet marketing strategy consulting firm for the hospitality vertical, is based in New York City (www.hospitalityebusiness.com). HeBS has pioneered many of the "best practices" in hotel Internet marketing and direct online distribution. The firm specializes in helping hoteliers build their direct Internet marketing and distribution strategy, boost the hotel Internet marketing presence, establish interactive relationships with their customers, and significantly increase direct online bookings and ROIs. A diverse client portfolio of over 500 top tier major hotel brands, luxury and boutique hotel companies, hotel management and representation companies, franchisees and independents, resorts and casinos and CVBs has sought and successfully taken advantage of the firm hospitality Internet marketing expertise. Contact HeBS consultants at (212)752-8186 or info@hospitalityebusiness.com.

About Interactive Media Awards

The Interactive Media Awards (IMA) competition is open to individuals and organizations involved in designing, developing, managing, supporting and promoting websites. Nominations are accepted from around the world from web design firms, advertising agencies and corporate marketing departments, as well as individual web designers and graphic artists, among others. Created by the Interactive Media Council, Inc. (IMC), a nonprofit organization of leading web designers, developers, programmers, advertisers and other web-related professionals, the competition is designed to elevate the standards of excellence on the Internet and offer winners a boost in marketing and exposure.